Thread: Mayor, known for immigrant stand, may run for Congress

Mayor, known for immigrant stand, may run for Congress
Popular with voters in Hazleton, Louis Barletta eyes campaign against Democratic Congressman
Sunday, August 12, 2007

By Milan Simonich, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Hazleton, Pa., Mayor Louis Barletta, whose visibility is unusually high because of his campaign against undocumented workers and their families says he will decide by January whether to run for Congress in 2008.

"I'm giving it serious consideration," said Mr. Barletta, a Republican. "I like being mayor, but everybody knows I've been disappointed by Washington's inaction on immigration reform."

Rob Gleason, chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, said Mr. Barletta is probably the only challenger who could unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, who has represented a Northeastern Pennsylvania district since 1985.

"We like Lou a lot. He'd be a great candidate, and I've been urging him to run," said Mr. Gleason, of Johnstown.

Mr. Barletta in 2002 lost to Mr. Kanjorski by 22,000 votes out of 164,000 cast. But Mr. Barletta is much better known today because of attempts to drive undocumented workers and their families out of Hazleton through city ordinances.

U.S. District Judge James Munley last month struck down the Hazleton laws as unconstitutional, saying immigration enforcement is the federal government's job. Hazleton plans to appeal.

One ordinance would have required every renter in Hazleton to obtain a residency permit from city hall. Another would have punished businesses that hired undocumented workers and landlords who rented to them.

Mr. Barletta said Hazleton's ordinances would have supplemented -- not supplanted -- federal immigration law.

Local immigration ordinances have been springing up all over the country, but Hazleton's law was the first to go to trial and the one that commanded national attention. Mr. Barletta, 51, was featured on "60 Minutes" and has become a semi-regular on television talk shows, such as "Lou Dobbs Tonight" on CNN.

"Before, nobody outside of Hazleton knew who Barletta was. I don't know too many mayors who have gotten on TV the way he has," said Cesar Perales, president of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and one of Mr. Barletta's toughest critics.

The mayor said Hazleton, a city of 22,000, is being ruined by undocumented newcomers. During the trial, he testified that violent crime, drug dealing and street gangs were on the increase, all of which he tied to a surge in undocumented immigrants.

Two immigrants from the Dominican Republic were arrested in a Hazleton murder in May 2006, a fact Mr. Barletta mentioned in every media interview. The charges against both suspects were dropped last month by the district attorney of Luzerne County, but Mr. Barletta has not relented.

"We know they're the right guys," he said in an interview last week. "The gun that was used was found in their house."

His message about immigrant lawbreakers hurting small cities has pumped new life into his career. Mr. Barletta's detractors, though, say he is guilty of distortion.

"He's a demagogue. He has exaggerated the problems his city is dealing with, and he's got zero evidence that undocumented immigrants are the cause of the problems," said Vic Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and lead attorney in the lawsuit that toppled Hazleton's ordinances.

Mr. Perales, whose Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund also was a party to the suit against Hazleton, said Mr. Barletta's campaign against undocumented immigrants is damaging the country.

"Rather than using his bully pulpit as mayor to bring people together, he is dividing them. This same prejudice that he is fueling was used against his own ancestors," Mr. Perales said.

In Hazleton, the mayor's detractors are hard to find. Residents re-elected Mr. Barletta to a third term in May. He received 94 percent of the vote in the Republican primary election, and he won the Democratic primary as a write-in candidate.

Mr. Gleason said the immigration issue has given the mayor name recognition throughout the state. Just as important to those in politics, Mr. Barletta has proven his ability to raise money.

Ordinary citizens from around the country have donated more than $300,000 to Hazleton so it can finance its court case without tax dollars. Mr. Barletta said about half the money was spent at the trial that ended in defeat. He is busy raising more for the city's appeal to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Though Mr. Barletta had predicted victory at the trial, he now says he expected to lose in Judge Munley's court. He said his side never had a fair chance.

"I was not surprised by the judge's ruling, but I was disappointed," Mr. Barletta said. "When you have no opportunity to cross-examine the people who have sued you, you are not going to win."

Judge Munley allowed four undocumented immigrants to anonymously join the suit against Hazleton, a decision that Mr. Barletta said he believed could be one basis for a successful appeal.

The judge said he shielded the identity of people who were in the country illegally for a simple reason: They could have been injured or intimidated if their identities had been revealed during the emotionally charged debate over Hazleton's ordinances.

Kris Kobach, a University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor who represented Hazleton at the trial, said Judge Munley was inconsistent in deciding who can sue the government anonymously.

Days after the Hazleton ruling, Judge Munley dismissed a lawsuit by two anonymous plaintiffs against the Pleasant Valley School District. The school suit was aimed at a teacher who purportedly had been unprofessional during classroom lectures.

"In my experience as an attorney, I've never seen a judge issue two opposing rulings on this issue, especially in such close proximity," Mr. Kobach said.

But Mr. Walczak said Judge Munley's rulings made good sense, given the circumstances of each case.

"Apples and oranges," Mr. Walczak said. "There is nothing inconsistent in what the judge did."

Everybody in Hazleton and everybody who sued Hazleton expects Mr. Barletta to follow through with the appeal.

Mr. Perales said the court case will keep Mr. Barletta in the spotlight for at least another year or two, regardless of whether he runs for Congress. He recalled a television appearance with Mr. Barletta in which an aide said the mayor was like "a rock star who came out of nowhere."

Mr. Barletta, a native of Hazleton, said he moved against undocumented immigrants for one reason only -- to save his city. With America's borders unsecured, he said, Hazleton has been transformed for the worse.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07224/808851-178.stm

Barletta is awesome
Does he want to come to Nevada and help us......our people are STILL ignoring everything....

Judge Munley allowed four undocumented immigrants to anonymously join the suit against Hazleton, a decision that Mr. Barletta said he believed could be one basis for a successful appeal.

The judge said he shielded the identity of people who were in the country illegally for a simple reason: They could have been injured or intimidated if their identities had been revealed during the emotionally charged debate over Hazleton's ordinances.

This exemplifies the obstacles in trying to use the judicial system to fix this problem. If the 3rd circuit finds for Hazelton on the above issue the case will probably be sent back for a new trial without reaching the core issue. This not only keeps the matter in a state of limbo, but Hazelton has to bear the expense of another trial.